1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus and a method for transferring a dried, fixed and stained smear of a biological substance from a substrate to a backing element which provides a permanent mounting for the smear for examination of the smear under a microscope.
2. Prior Art
There is disclosed in Adler U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,895 apparatus and a method which may be automated for preparing a smear of a biological substance on a substrate. The smear may comprise a whole blood specimen or other type of cellular suspension. Such smears are useful for examination of the cellular material for diagnostic purposes.
That technique, which utilizes a ribbon element, may be characterized as including the steps of supporting the substrate element for movement, supporting the ribbon element for movement in close proximity to the substrate element at a sample-applying station, introducing a relatively small quantity of a biological liquid sample between the ribbon and substrate elements at the sample-applying station, spreading the sample across at least the central portion of the ribbon element, drawing the sample on the substrate element by moving one of the elements relatively to the other, and moving the ribbon element by advancing it to present a fresh portion thereof to the sample-applying station. In the form illustrated there by way of example, the substrate is a flexible tape and the patent details the manner in which such a smear-carrying tape should be at least temporarily assembled by manipulation with a microscope slide for examination under a microscope with the tape in place.
The present invention deals at least in part with the permanent mounting of a transferred smear on a microscope slide for such examination without the presence of a tape or the like.